March 15-16, 2007, 7:30pm
Conrad Grebel Great Hall
“The Confession of a Reluctant Mennonite”
Lecture 1: “Writing from the Outside”
Lecture 2: “From the Inside Out”
Canadian author Sandra Birdsell will deliver the much anticipated 2007 Bechtel Lectures in Anabaptist- Mennonite Studies at Conrad Grebel University College. She has described her lectures as “The Confession of a Reluctant Mennonite.”
As a young person in search of an ethnic and cultural identity, Birdsell’s question “what is a Mennonite?” went unanswered. She was left to make assumptions based on actions rather than words – on what she could observe rather than what she was told. In her first lecture, Birdsell revisits the range of conclusions she arrived at after years of studying her Russian Mennonite relatives, and offers a commentary on the influence their heritage had both on her development as a writer and on the themes of her fiction. In her second lecture, Birdsell recalls how, during a seven-year journey through the inner and outer landscapes of the Russian Mennonite world, she re-examined her Mennonite heritage, and describes how she came to evoke the Mennonite voice while writing her gripping historical novel, The Russländer.
Birdsell explained:
These lectures reveal how I had to read between the lines when I tried to break the code of silence adopted by my Russian Mennonite family. The lectures provide an anecdotal and biographical commentary on the perceptions and misconceptions that governed my coming to understand the Russian Mennonite experience.
Conrad Grebel President Henry Paetkau said,
We are delighted to have someone of Sandra Birdsell's literary reputation and skill deliver this year's Bechtel Lectures! The examination of her Russian Mennonite identity from the insider/outsider perspective is especially intriguing. I expect that anyone who has seriously pondered or even wrestled with their particular identity will be challenged and inspired by her reflections.
Currently writer in residence at the University of Winnipeg, Birdsell has written three collections of short fiction, five novels (including one for children), radio and theatre plays, as well as television and film scripts. Her most recent books are Children of the Day (2005) and The Russländer (2001). She has received the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award, the McNally Robinson prize for best book of the year and was nominated for a Governor General’s Award in 1992 and 1997.
The Bechtel Lectures in Anabaptist-Mennonite Studies at Conrad Grebel were established in 2000 by Waterloo County businessman and farmer, Lester Bechtel. The purpose of the lectureship is to foster interest in and understanding of Anabaptist/Mennonite faith and its relevance today by seeing it projected through the eyes of experts from a range of disciplines.
For more information about the 2007 Bechtel Lectures, please contact the President’s Office at Conrad Grebel University College at 519-885-0220 x24223.